Alumni Profile – Suzanne Soliman, PharmD ’04
After missing a few of her son’s baseball games due to work, Suzanne Soliman, longed for a place to connect with other moms who were pharmacists. So she created it.
Suzanne Soliman, PharmD ’04, has had a prosperous career – she completed a residency, served as a faculty member at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy, worked for Abbott as a Medical Science Liasion, was the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs for five year at UIC COP and is now the Chief Academic Officer for the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs (ACMA). Yet, despite all of her success, Suzanne was having a hard time juggling her career and motherhood. So she reached out to a few of her colleagues, former classmates, and friends in pharmacy and realized the critical need for a support network for pharmacist moms.
So Suzanne put her frustrations to work. In 2017, she created the Pharmacist Moms Group on Facebook to provide resources, support, and understanding to fellow pharmacist moms.
Within a month of starting the group, it grew to 1,000 members. Today, the group has reached 30,000 members from all over the United States and abroad.
“It’s a niche that didn’t previously exist,” Dr. Soliman says, “which is surprising due to the large number of women in the profession.” Women have graduated as the majority from colleges of pharmacy for the past 4 decades and currently comprise 55% of the pharmacist workforce in the United States, and that number is expected to grow.
Dr. Soliman also created Women Pharmacist Day, which had its inaugural year in 2018. The day was created to “celebrate the significant gains that women have made in pursuing careers in pharmacy, honor the trailblazers who have made such progress possible, and recognize the important contributions that women pharmacists make, every day, to deliver quality care to patients nationwide.”
October 12th was chosen as the annual Women Pharmacist Day because, not only is October American Pharmacist Month, but the 12th day of the month was chosen in honor of the first female pharmacist in the United States, Elizabeth Gooking Greenleaf, who had 12 children – a pharmacist mom pioneer.
The group is also taking the next steps and the developed the Pharmacist Moms Coalition, an advocacy alliance for pharmacist moms.
“We are reaching out to community pharmacy chains and advocating for women’s issues,” said Dr. Soliman. “It’s hard for women who are pregnant and are working 16-hour shifts to be on their feet for so long. This is something that nobody talks about.” We are asking chain pharmacies to provide a stool for all pregnant women and asking that these women do not have to wait for this. A few chains have already responded and are working with Pharmacist Moms to honor this request. “The hope is that all chains will follow”, says Soliman.
So what advice would Dr. Soliman offer to pharmacy moms? “Just because I miss a game or I miss a meeting doesn’t mean I’m a bad mom or a bad pharmacist. It’s all about balance.”
Interested in being a Pharmacist Mom? Join at: go.uic.edu/pharmacistmoms.